Backlash after Mexican president bizarrely claims movement had been formed to oppose his administrationMexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has picked yet another fight with the country’s burgeoning feminist movement, saying it only started “two years ago” and bizarrely claiming it had been formed to oppose his administration.Asked on Wednesday about a march in Mexico City for International Safe Abortion Day, the president spoke conspiratorially of the women’s movement, alleging it had become “conservative” – a term he uses to deride his critics. Continue reading...

Southwark Playhouse, London

Group of whistleblowing doctors gave 10,000-page dossier to investigators last month with allegations against Prevent SeniorOne of Brazil’s biggest healthcare providers has been accused of covering up coronavirus deaths, pressuring doctors to prescribe ineffective treatments, and testing unproven drugs on elderly patients as part of ideologically-charged efforts to help the Brazilian government resist a Covid lockdown.Related: Trump may be gone, but Covid has not seen off populism Continue reading...

Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind

Navy chief Tony Radakin and SAS general Sir Patrick Sanders are frontrunners for the positionBoris Johnson has interviewed five candidates to head Britain’s armed forces, with navy chief Adm Tony Radakin and the general responsible for the SAS, Sir Patrick Sanders, frontrunners for the job.Defence sources said the prime minister had been advised to pick a new military leader with “operational experience” to replace the outgoing Gen Sir Nick Carter, whose credibility was damaged by the chaotic exit from Afghanistan. Continue reading...

Ex-model will be treated at the Priory before being sentenced in December following collision near Sussex homeKatie Price faces a possible prison sentence after pleading guilty to drink-driving and admitting taking drugs after a crash near her home in Sussex.She will be treated at the drug rehabilitation clinic the Priory before being sentenced in December. Continue reading...

Turkey’s president wants to shore up the truce because it has been ruptured repeatedly in the last 18 monthsTurkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian president Vladimir Putin have held face-to-face talks for the first time since the pandemic in which they discussed the future of the last pocket of Syria outside regime control.The leaders met in Russia’s Black Sea resort town of Sochi for Wednesday’s summit, Erdoğan sought to shore up a March 2020 ceasefire deal which ended a bruising assault by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies on Turkish-backed fighters in north-west Syria. The fighting last year brought Ankara and Moscow close to direct confrontation and threatened Turkey – which is already home to around four million Syrians – with a new wave of refugees. Continue reading...

The world’s top coal consumer implements power rationing as supplies dwindle ahead of winterChina has told railway companies and local authorities to expedite vital coal supplies to utilities as the world’s second largest economy grapples with extensive power cuts that have crippled industrial output in key regions.As many as 20 provinces are believed to be experiencing the crisis to some degree, with factories temporarily shuttered or working on short hours. Shopkeepers were left to light their stores by candles, and there were reports of mobile networks failing after a three-day outage hit three north-eastern provinces. Continue reading...

Cardiff pays tribute to woman who became a model for best practice in equality and multicultural educationShe was a pioneer and a rule-breaker, an educator, community leader and race relations campaigner who met Nelson Mandela and rubbed shoulders with royalty – but always had time to call out the bingo numbers at a local event or sign a passport photo.In bright sunshine on Wednesday, a choir from the school Betty Campbell led with distinction sang her favourite song, Something Inside So Strong, as a huge bronze monument to her was unveiled in a Cardiff city centre square. Continue reading...

Taliban deny Morteza Samadi, 21, has been sentenced to death but family concerned for his safety after he was detained while covering women’s protests in HeratFears are growing for a photojournalist who has been detained by the Taliban for more than three weeks after being arrested while covering the women’s protests in Herat.Morteza Samadi, 21, a freelance photographer, was one of several journalists who were arrested at street protests at the beginning of September. All were quickly released except Morteza, whose whereabouts is not known. Some of those detained in Kabul have alleged they were badly beaten and tortured. Continue reading...

Bloc accuses Lukashenko of incentivising migrants to cross Belarus’s border with the EU

Spain brought Catholicism, civilisation and freedom to Americas, says Isabel Díaz AyusoThe rightwing president of the Madrid region has taken issue with the pope’s recent apology for the church’s “very painful errors” in Mexico, and said Spanish conquistadors brought Catholicism, civilisation and freedom to Latin America.Isabel Díaz Ayuso, touted as a possible future leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party, has a history of provocative pronouncements. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Labour leader addresses delegates for first time in person and says Labour will strengthen legal protections for victims of crime

We’d like to hear from UK employers and employees what the end of the furlough scheme will mean for their jobs and businessesThe government’s furlough scheme, introduced in April 2020, will end on 30 September.We’re interested to hear from employees still currently on furlough how they might be affected, as well as from employers. Continue reading...

‘Discriminatory’ banning of I Am Samuel, about a gay man’s struggles with his sexuality, criticised by activists and producersActivists and film producers have criticised a decision by the Kenya Film Classification Board to ban a documentary that tells the story of a Kenyan man struggling with his sexuality.They said banning the 52-minute film, I Am Samuel, amounted to “discrimination and persecution” of LGBTQ+ people. Continue reading...

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2017: After police failed to solve his son’s murder, Francisco Holgado infiltrated the local criminal underworld in pursuit of those responsible. He became a national hero – but at what cost? By Matthew Bremner Continue reading...

Analysis: plan to reduce abortions as birthrates plunge draws comparisons to The Handmaid’s TaleFar-reaching proposals from Beijing on “women’s development” have sparked concern over a pledge to reduce abortions, with feminists and academics pointing to the government’s history of control over women’s reproductive rights.On Monday China’s state council published its latest 10-year outline for women’s development. The lengthy document contained guidelines for China’s gender-based policy, but it was a short phrase that caught particular attention: a pledge to “reduce abortions conducted for non-medical reasons”. Continue reading...

Élysée says future talks must have substance after Canberra’s decision to cancel submarine contractFrance has said any future talks between Emmanuel Macron and the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, over the fallout from Canberra’s decision to tear up a €56bn (£48bn) submarine deal will have to be “seriously prepared” and have “substance”.The Élysée Palace has denied it is refusing to take Morrison’s calls, saying the president is “always available to talk on the phone”, but has admitted it is not in any hurry to resume contact with Canberra. Continue reading...

Short hemlines evoke ‘revolution and the spirit of youth’, says creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri

Temporary staff at meat plants in the Netherlands share none of the success of the booming industry as agencies withhold pay and threaten evictionRead more: ‘The whole system is rotten’: life inside Europe’s meat industryIn October last year, Lucian Roșu found himself unemployed and homeless in Boxtel, a town in the southern Netherlands. “I went to the railway station and slept there in the cold and the rain,” he says.A few hundred metres away, on the other side of the train tracks, was the headquarters of one of Europe’s biggest meat companies, where he had worked a few days before on the production line. Continue reading...

Kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 students will return on 18 October, the government is expected to announce on ThursdaySchool students in NSW will head back to class earlier than expected with the government bringing forward start dates by one week.The new timetable, agreed to by the state’s crisis cabinet on Wednesday, means kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 students will return on 18 October. Continue reading...

9.43am BSTWith that, we will wrap up for the night. Thanks for being with us. Here are the headlines for today:9.26am BSTThis is our WA COVID-19 update for Wednesday, 29 September 2021.

With travel restrictions in place, campervans provide a way of travelling with the family and are currently very popular in Hidaka of Saitama prefecture, a suburb to the west of Tokyo Continue reading...

This simmering 70s-set domestic drama is warm, expansive and funny – a pure pleasure to readThe times are a-changing in solid, respectable New Prospect, Illinois, where Christmas 1971 arrives in a whirl of sex, drugs and folk music, while the Vietnam war grinds on off stage. Inside the First Reformed church, the worshippers are attempting to ride out the storm, casting about for something rock solid and true. This might be God or family or a fresh myth to believe in, a 20th-century pursuit-of-happiness tale, self-authored if need be.New Prospect is in a state of flux but Jonathan Franzen remains reliably, defiantly Franzen-esque, tending to his faltering flock in fair weather or foul, and whatever the ructions in the country at large. Crossroads, his splendid sixth novel, comes billed as the first part of a proposed trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, named after Edward Casaubon’s absurd, unfinished tract in Middlemarch. But, in the best possible way, it feels less like a beginning than like the latest yield of a familiar crop, or a newly discovered branch of a big midwestern family. Continue reading...

Seven years after fleeing army clashes with militants, 100 families eking out an existence on a hillside near the Afghan border are unable to return home“Don’t talk to me about the government. They don’t help.”Ninety-year-old Shah Mast is angry. He has been living in the cave he calls home for seven years, ever since an offensive by the Pakistan army against the Islamist militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) destroyed his home. Continue reading...

Authorities address concerns over 10-minute wait times on triple zero calls while staff reportedly struggle with workload

He has the most evoked name in Australia thanks to the Covid-19 modelling that bears it. Features editor Lucy Clark recommends Paul Daley’s profile on Peter Doherty, which ranges from politics, books, misinformation and that tweetYou can read the original article here: Covid, Twitter, and Dan Murphy’s opening hours: Peter Doherty on his not-so-restful retirement

Members of the Extinction Rebellion splinter group have targeted the M25 and Port of DoverMore than 50 people arrested in connection with an ongoing series of environmental protests targeting the M25 and Port of Dover have been released under investigation.Police officers made 53 arrests after the Insulate Britain demonstration at junction 14, near Heathrow, on Monday. Continue reading...

Secondary school students and staff describe persistent problems that point to scale of long Covid

Inquiry commissioned by WHO details sexual abuse, including rape allegations, during DRC outbreakThe World Health Organization has described itself as “heartbroken” after an independent inquiry it commissioned said scores of women and girls were sexually abused by aid workers during the devastating 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.The findings were described as “harrowing reading” by the WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while its regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said she was “humbled, horrified and heartbroken”. Continue reading...

Fund says ‘hundreds of hours a year’ are required to process requests that would be shielded under proposed Coalition legislation• Get our free news app; get our morning email briefingThe $250bn Future Fund says receiving 10 to 20 freedom of information requests a year is “administratively burdensome” and has confirmed proposed changes by the Morrison government would have shielded it from the kind of request that exposed investments in a company linked to the Myanmar military.Last month, the Coalition introduced a bill granting wide-ranging exemptions to the Future Fund from freedom of information law, prompting criticism that it was a “calculated response” to an FoI that revealed its $3.2m investment in an Adani company criticised by the United Nations for an arrangement that gave financial support to the Myanmar military. Continue reading...

Thousands of outsourced workers on inferior pay and conditions to fulfil demand for cheap meat, Guardian investigation showsRead more: ‘The whole system is rotten’: life inside Europe’s meat industryMeat companies across Europe have been hiring thousands of workers through subcontractors, agencies and bogus co-operatives on inferior pay and conditions, a Guardian investigation has found.Workers, officials and labour experts have described how Europe’s £190bn meat industry has become a global hotspot for outsourced labour, with a floating cohort of workers, many of whom are migrants, with some earning 40% to 50% less than directly employed staff in the same factories.

Airport workers occasionally remove stray cats and racoon dogs from the runway but turtle sightings are rareTurtles on a Runway probably will never rival Snakes on a Plane for dramatic effect, but one reptile has made headlines after an innocent amble along the tarmac at Japan’s second-busiest airport, delaying five planes.The turtle, which weighs just over 2kg, was seen moving slowly along the tarmac at Narita international airport near Tokyo on Friday morning, prompting a pilot preparing for takeoff to contact air traffic control. Continue reading...

Cynthia and Victor Liu’s release follows the US ending a legal case against Huawei executive Meng WanzhouTwo American siblings prevented from leaving China since 2018 have returned to the United States, their release coming shortly after the United States ended a legal case against a top Huawei executive.Cynthia and Victor Liu returned to America over the weekend, according to a US official, after more than three years during which they were not allowed to leave China under an “exit ban” despite not facing criminal allegations. Their father, former bank official and fugitive Liu Changming, is wanted in China to face fraud charges. Continue reading...

Joining Aukus sends a clear message but the submarines are years away – in the meantime Canberra must creatively push back against BeijingCanberra’s momentous decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines through the new Aukus arrangement with London and Washington is an unmistakable sign of Australia’s commitment to balance China’s military power in the Indo-Pacific region.But it’s far from enough. Assuming all goes to plan with the design, negotiations, building, budget, training and testing, Australia’s first submarine won’t enter operational service until the late-2030s at the earliest. Continue reading...

Queensland has recorded four local Covid-19 cases. The premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there is 'no need to panic' but some of the new cases are concerning. Mask rules will be tightened for indoor areas in the Brisbane and Moreton Bay areas. Restrictions will also be imposed at aged care centres, prisons and in disability settings. Palaszczuk also announced the state would make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all truck drivers using the freight paths. Truck drivers will be required to have their first dose by 15 October and their second dose or a booking by 15 November

Factories were closed to avoid exceeding limits on energy use imposed by Beijing to promote efficiencyWidening power shortages in China’s north-east have left homes without power and halted production at numerous factories, while some shops operated by candlelight as the economic toll of the squeeze mounted.Residents in the north-east, where autumn temperatures are falling, reported power cuts and appealed on social media for the government to restore supplies. Continue reading...

UK records 40 coronavirus-linked deaths in the past 24 hours; Japan to lift Covid state of emergency in all regions at the end of September

Keir Starmer and industry leaders call on PM to do more as ministers decide against immediate deployment of troopsBoris Johnson has ordered the army to remain on standby to help fuel reach petrol stations hit by panic buying, as Keir Starmer and businesses called on him to get a grip on the shortages rippling across the economy.No 10 said army drivers would be ready to help deliver petrol and diesel on a short-term basis, but stopped short of an immediate deployment, even though some essential workers have not been able to carry out their jobs without fuel. Continue reading...

Arrivals in 2021 stand at 17,085, despite vows from government to make such journeys ‘unviable’The number of people who have made the dangerous journey across the Channel in small boats this year is double the total for all of 2020 – with more than three months left of 2021.Related: Home Office planned speedy removal of Vietnamese trafficking victims Continue reading...

Olaf Scholz, poised to become next chancellor, wades into row over HGV driver shortageThe centre-left politician in pole position to replace Angela Merkel as German chancellor has pinpointed the decision to end freedom of movement with Europe after Brexit as the reason for Britain’s petrol crisis.Olaf Scholz, who is seeking to form a coalition government after the SPD emerged as the biggest party in Germany’s federal elections, said he hoped Boris Johnson would be able to deal with the consequences of the UK’s exit from the EU. Continue reading...

Koci Selamaj, 36, was arrested on Sunday over death of Nessa, 28, whose body was found in KidbrookeA man has been charged with the murder of Sabina Nessa, the teacher who was found dead in a park close to her south London home.Koci Selamaj, aged 36, was arrested by police early on Sunday morning in East Sussex, just over a week after the body of the 28-year-old teacher was found. Continue reading...

Trial of the singer had theme of Kelly using his fame and power to subject his victims to sexual and physical abuseR Kelly’s conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges came after a trial that shocked the US and opened the eyes of a nation to claims of shocking, decades-long abuse that predominantly targeted young Black girls.Jurors in a New York federal court heard from multiple witnesses over the weeks-long trial of behavior by the singer, with a common theme of Kelly using his fame and power to subject his victims to sexual and physical abuse. Continue reading...

A carer, a GP and a social worker speak about the impact its having on them and their workWith people in places across the UK still unable to fill up their tanks while petrol stations have run dry and British fuel prices have hit an eight-year high, three key workers – a carer, a GP and a social worker – spoke about the impact the situation was having on them and their work. Continue reading...

Sculpture based on the poem The Gleaner of Sapri was unveiled by former PM Giuseppe Conte on SaturdayA statue depicting a scantily dressed woman from a 19th-century poem has sparked a sexism row in Italy.The bronze statue, which portrays the woman in a transparent dress, was unveiled on Saturday during a ceremony attended by the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte in Sapri, in the southern Campania region. Continue reading...

The 25m-year-old fossil reveals ancient eagle had features unlike any seen among modern hawks and eaglesA 25m-year-old eagle fossil discovered on a remote outback cattle station in South Australia has been identified as one of the oldest raptor species in the world.Palaeontologists discovered the eagle fossil on the shore of a dry lake known as Lake Pinpa in 2016, and have since identified it as a new species, Archaehierax sylvestris, in a study published in the journal Historical Biology. Continue reading...

Could the calamity unfolding in Britain happen in Australia? Is a net zero target to blame, as the deputy PM claims? Adam Morton looks behind the Nationals leader’s claims

Party that entered German parliament in 2017 drops about 2% nationally despite performing strongly in eastThe far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which made a whirlwind entry into the German parliament in 2017, is set to lose its status as the main opposition force following Sunday’s election but has at the same time emerged as the strongest party in parts of eastern Germany.The party, which rose to prominence on an anti-immigrant ticket after the arrival of around 1m refugees in 2015 but has more recently focused its attention on attacking the government’s pandemic management, dropped just over 2% nationally to secure 10.3% of the vote. Continue reading...

Policy uses women as tool for economic goals and could endanger their lives, says rights groupChina’s pledge to limit abortions puts women’s bodies under the state’s control just as the one-child policy did and could endanger the lives of women seeking abortions, rights groups have said.The Chinese government announced on Monday that it would seek to reduce abortions for “non-medical reasons” – a move seen as being in line with its attempts to accelerate birthrates. Continue reading...

The Dome at America’s Center, St Louis, Missouri